Welcome

We left Bloomington this morning around 6:15 am to make sure we were at the airport with plenty of time to catch our 9:30 am flight.

The flight went from Indy to Chicago and then on to San Francisco. In Chicago we got off of the plane to stretch our legs before the 4 hour flight to San Francisco. American doesn't give you anything to snack on during the flight just drinks. Other airlines I have been on recently at least throw you a bag of peanuts.

We got into San Francisco about 12:45 pacific time and then had to figure out how to catch the Caltrain to San Jose. Luckily the route was fairly well labeled and we took the airport tram to the BART and the BART to Caltrain. We almost lost Adam Basey and Matt Henry at the BART stop since the doors closed before they were able to get on. Luckily the conductor saw them standing there and reopened the doors to let them on.

The Caltrain was a double decker train and I hadn't seen that before. We all managed to get on the Caltrain with no problems. We rode all of the way to San Jose and then had the task of finding the hotel. I forgot to print directions to the hotel so we ended up asking a few people. We walked a long way to get to the hotel from the Caltrain stop. On the way back I am going to figure out how to get on the light rail to take that to the Caltrain and then back to SF.

The only tragedy we had was loosing one of the tubes with a few CHI posters in it. Luckily a few people were carrying copies of the poster so everything is ok.

After getting checked into the Ramada we went to get dinner and then to find the convention center. We are really close so the walk tomorrow won't be that bad.

Tonight we are probably going to have 5 people in a room meant for no more than 4 and honestly 3 comfortably. We are hoping to be able to relocate the two roommates we picked up a few weeks ago to another room since our room is so overcrowded right now.

Tomorrow is the first official day of the conference. Our CHI teams have their poster session tomorrow and will know by the end of the day if they are presenting on Wednesday. I just have to figure out what talks I want to go to tomorrow.

The more pressing thing for me right now is to get my video edited down for Jeff's class and to write my two reflection papers. I am hoping to get at least one of these done this evening.

There are a lot of students at the Ramada. It is really noisy and I am sure there will be a lot of parties here. Tonight I am just exhausted from the trip. It is 9:30 here and 12:30 in Bloomington so it is getting close to my bedtime.

Today I started thinking about what software I need to transfer to my Mac before moving in a few weeks. I am leaving my windows desktop here since it isn't worth shipping for 12 weeks.

Most of my software is windows based since I have always had Windows machines. Even when I replaced my Adobe stuff I purchased the Windows version of it since my main machine is a Windows box.

The nice thing about my laptop is that it runs both operating systems and does a pretty good job of it too. I am upgrading boot camp right now hopefully it will get even better with this upgrade.

I will admit one of the main reasons I purchased a Mac over a PC laptop is the ability to run both operating systems. It has been really nice to be able to play with the Mac OS but still have the Windows OS if I can't get something to work in Mac or have something I prefer to use in Windows.

The only thing that occasionally throws me off is remembering to use the ctrl key instead of the apple key for shortcut commands. Since I am looking at a Mac keyboard I often find myself using apple in Windows.

I always get really reflective right around my birthday. Asking questions such as where am I going, am I on the right track, am I happy with the direction I have chosen, among others.

Asking those questions of myself over the past week I have had a lot of thoughts.

A year ago today I was living in Tampa, FL, working for the New York Times Company and keeping my move to Indiana a secret. I had already found the apartment I am living in now and had made the arrangements to move my stuff.

On the evening of my birthday last year I went to the beach where I sat on some rocks along the shore and watched the sunset.

As I sat there I thought about the road ahead of me. A move to a place where I knew no one, almost a thousand miles away from family and friends. A climate I had never dealt with before and would have to figure out how to survive in. I had visited other places but had never lived outside of Florida until now.

I remember the day I told my bosses I was leaving. I was really nervous about it since I really did enjoy my job and the people I worked with. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it but I wanted to let them know a month in advance since I had been with the company for so long. I worked for this company for 4 years. I was hired by one of the divisions a few months after I graduated from college. This is the only company I had known.

My direct supervisor had a party for me at his house. It was really nice and all of my work friends showed up. After everyone left it was just me and my boss sitting out by his pool talking. I remember talking to him and both of us getting upset. He started crying and then I did. That is when the reality of moving hit me. It was scary for me but not nearly as scary as the experience that the international students have had being hundreds of thousands of miles away from everyone they know.

The next day the movers showed up at 9 and started packing up everything in my little apartment. I was really going to do this, it was happening.

At the end of the day I looked at all of my stuff on the truck knowing the next time I would see it would be in Indiana. I came back the next day to clean out my apartment and pack up some things I would take in the car with me.

The next day my mom and I left for Indiana. We stopped in Atlanta for the night and then drove the rest of the way to Bloomington. I remember crossing the bridge over the Ohio river in Louisville in to Indiana and feeling somewhat relieved to be in the state yet strange at the same time. The drive down the windy road from 65 near Columbus to Bloomington seemed really long. At that point I was anxious to be there and settled again.

I picked up the keys to my apartment that Sunday hoping my stuff would show up on Tuesday. My mom helped me run errands while I was in orientation and had planned to be here when the movers brought my stuff. Unfortunately that plan did not work out since she left Wednesday and the movers came on Thursday.

The morning my mom left was difficult for both of us. She had to take the shuttle to the airport because I had orientation activities that day so we said our goodbyes and she left for the airport.

When my stuff finally showed up it was a mess and I had only a few days before school started to unpack.

The semester started off with a bang. The first week we had two projects due in two of our classes and it would continue this way for the first few months of the semester.

The last few months have been full of uncertainty at first as to whether I would get an internship at all, then where would I end up going, would this company get me an offer before another one did. I was very happy when this was all settled a few weeks ago.

Through my work with the Women in Computing outreach program, JustBe, I have been inspired even more to teach. I am hoping to get an assistant instructor position next year to work with undergraduates. I think I have a good shot since the professors like me and I am well thought of by many people. The idea of getting a PhD to become a professor has come back into my mind. I know I can't do that now due to my pile of debt from my undergrad and first year of my Master's program. It is not a done deal but a possible path for me later.

Many people set goals such as I want to be married by the time I am a certain age. My goal was to have my Master's degree by the time I turned 30. This is something I could control. I am going to miss it by a few weeks due to the graduation date but I am going to consider it accomplished.

Looking back at the past year I would say that yes I am on the right track. I know generally where I am going and I am happy with the decisions I have made. I have come a long way in the past year. The path has been difficult and frustrating at times the thoughts of giving up did cross my mind but were quickly dismissed by my determination.

My loneness for people I knew back home and the area I grew up in was quickly replaced by the joy of making new friends here and exploring Bloomington. I really care about my friends here. They are some of the greatest people I have met in a while.

Now on my 29th birthday I find myself looking into the horizon seeing a new adventure. Three months in California for an internship. Back to Indiana for my last year of school and then who knows where I will be working next summer.

One thing I do know is that I will not be sitting here on my 30th birthday saying I wonder what would have happened if I would have taken the risk of going back to school.

Today I attended the Little 500 women's race with a friend. The Little Five is a big part of IU and I was excited to see one of the races. I am not going to tackle the men's race tomorrow, maybe next year. More on the Little Five from Wikipedia.

It was really nice day outside not too hot or cold. The group I was with ended up in the bleachers directly in the sun. I got a bit of a sunburn today nothing that bad though.

Since I don't have time to post the photos to my website I put them up on Flickr if you are interested in seeing the rest of the set. Little 500 photos

For my statistics class I ran a quick usability study of 10 subjects to gather some data. Often when you run tests you have to connect a web cam and microphone to your laptop. The camera has to be positioned so you can get the facial expressions of the participant this can take a little adjusting. Plus you have to make sure you remember the camera, microphone etc.

I have found an easy way to bypass the web cam.

If you use Camtasia on a MacBook running BootCamp and Windows. It makes it so much easier to set up your test since the only external thing you need to connect is your headset. The built in microphone might be strong enough to pick it up but I didn't want to take the chance of loosing audio.

It is nice to offer your user an external mouse since running Windows on a Mac is a little odd when it comes to finding the keys that need to be pressed and understanding how to right click.

The nice thing is that you can carry all of this equipment around in your backpack without adding any more weight than you already carry if you bring your laptop with you everywhere.

The last few days I have heard a few songs randomly that in my mind have connections to other events. This evening as a bunch of us were in the Informatics basement dancing, singing and working to the music from an iPod.

An Oasis song came on that I recognized some of the lyrics from but hadn't heard the song before. Then I remembered a drunk friend singing these two lines over and over again "Don't look back in anger, I heard you say". At first I was going to say hey do you remember when... to my friends but I realized that it had happened at my former boss's house back in Tampa. It was a funny evening and we ended up having to prevent this guy from driving home and keep him from falling in the pool. We took him in to the living room and had him lay down on the couch so he would go to sleep and stop singing the same two lines over and over again.

During spring break at the cabin one of the girls there was talking about her connection to the Talking Heads song "Everybody wants to rule the world" Every time I hear that now I think about how passionate she was in her description of what that song meant to her.

"No Rain" by Blind Mellon is one of my songs. I remember hearing it on the radio of the car I was learning to drive in Driver's Ed. Since then randomly hearing it has always brightened my day and has often been a precursor of good things happening that day.

Every time I hear Justin Timberlake's song "Sexy Back" I think about my friend Basey. We joke about that being his theme song. If you know him you will understand it.

There are other songs that bring back sad memories, some that inspire me and others that I heard for the first time in an interesting place or at a poignant moment. I am sure other people have these songs too.

Take a look at the picture below, don't these two objects look very similar?

The one on the left is a Shrek KNight light the one on the right is a Bluetooth headset. The KNight light came out of my box of Rice Krispies today and I immediately thought it looked like my Bluetooth headset. The directions that come with it even make it look like a child's version of a Bluetooth headset.

I think there is a headset that does look a lot like this one. I could see a child liking this because it is similar to something that their parents have. I can also see a major annoyance factor here since the child can turn on the light and shine it at anyone they are looking at.

It is actually sort of an interesting toy since you are supposed to wear it on your ear and it shoots a red light out of the end. Today so many cereals don't have toys in them. The light wasn't even in the bag with the cereal it was on the top so when I opened the box I took it out. I remember when the toy was at the bottom of the bag of cereal and you had to eat all of the cereal to get to it.

For the record I didn't buy the cereal because it had a toy. In fact I didn't even realize it had a toy until I picked up the box to pour a bowl of cereal. :)

Last night I went to Uncle Festers, a local Bloomington bar/concert venue, to see a band that one of my friends is friends with.

In Bloomington most bars require that you produce two forms of photo ID one of which is a driver's license or passport. I don't think it is an Indiana law but I am not sure. I usually give my driver's license and student ID. Bouncers are usually pretty confused since my license is from Florida and I don't think they see too many of those. So they feel the need to really study it and check for a holograph etc. I have gotten used to it by now.

The bouncer last night seemed to think my driver's license was a fake because he quizzed me about what county I live in. I was sort of shocked and it took me a minute to answer. I have never had someone quiz me about the information on my license before. After answering his question correctly and paying the cover I asked him how old do you think I am? He said no older than 22. I sort of laughed and said thanks I am actually going to be 29 next weekend. To which he said really I would have never guessed.

So either he thought I was cute and was trying to flirt or he really did think I was 22. I am going with the latter.

Tonight as I walked home from the library at dusk I noted what a nice evening it was. Still a bit on the chilly side for me but all in all not that bad.

As I walked past the Rose Well House I saw two lovebirds kissing. It would have been even more poignant if it would have been midnight. According to legend a woman is not a co-ed until she is kissed in the Rose Well House at midnight.

I thought about things I have to do and things I have done. With three weeks left in the semester I am still amazingly keeping my stress level fairly low. I am trying to keep things in perspective and not get overly stressed out.

I am really starting to get excited about going to CHI out in San Jose. I'll then come back for a week to wrap up things here and then most likely hop a plane back to San Francisco.

A year ago I would have never thought I would be preparing to spend the summer in California on a really good internship. A year ago I was savoring my last few months in Florida and planning my move to Indiana. It is really amazing what I have learned since August and how much more I have to learn this summer and next year.

This made me laugh today "Manatee Gang Gunfire Worries Local Deputies". Taken out of context it sounds like a gang of sea cows firing guns. Take a minute to picture that in your head.

If you are from the Tampa Bay area you would know that there is a county called Manatee so that is what it is really about. But it is still an amusing picture.

Today I accepted an internship position with PayPal in San Jose. I will be working in the user experience department.

I have never been to California and now I will be spending 12 weeks living there. I am very excited! The internship sounds really great. From what PayPal told me they seem to be working on some really important revisions to their software this summer. I'll get to work with people from various parts of the user interface department.

As part of the general intern program they also have social programming with interns from other parts of the company. We will also get to participate in brown bags lunches with the top execs from PayPal, eBay and Skype.

Now I just need to find housing, preferably in San Francisco.

I got my third internship offer today. :) I already turned one down so I now have two on the table. I have until Monday to decide but I am pretty sure I know what I want to do. I am not going to announce it here yet since I haven't told either company yet and won't do so until Monday. Ask me off line I will tell you though.

I have been really lucky with the internship process. When I was an undergrad I had to take an unpaid internship that turned out to be pretty crummy. This time I have had interviews with a lot of great companies and three offers. Two of which are what I am looking for in an internship. As I have said before hopefully this is a good sign for my job search next year.

Once I have let the companies know I will post here and let you know.

How unheard of is it to have two teams play for the national championship in basketball and football? That is really saying something about both schools.

I am very excited that we repeated as national champs in basketball.

I wish I was in Gainesville tonight they must be going crazy there.

I did find a few non bandwagon Gator fans to watch the game with tonight at Yogi's, a local bar. We were severely outnumbered by Ohio State fans understandably due to Indiana's proximity to Ohio. One guy got really out of hand at the end of the game and started yelling all sorts of things. All it all it is just a game.

Go Gators!!

Update: This is interesting. Since Florida won and I had them winning in my Facebook bracket they gave me an additional free gift to give someone on their profile. The gifts are a can of whoop ass, toilet paper with basketballs on it, a troll doll looking at a basketball and a ninja.

I also finished 8th in my Facebook pool, only because I picked the national champion. I got lucky on the others.

A company called Spark Parking has developed a system that can make finding an open space in a garage much easer. The core technology is a sensor that is placed in the space and senses whether there is car over it . If the spot is empty it sends a signal through the garage which can be used to let drivers know where an empty spot is, parking patterns in a garage among other things. When a driver parks in one of these smart spots they can pay for it using their cell phone. The driver enters the number of the spot along with their credit card information. When they leave the spot they are charged for that time.

This is an interesting application of technology to make finding and paying for parking easier.

Via Discovery Channel http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/03/30/cellphonepark_tec.html?category=technology&guid=20070330091500&dcitc=w01-101-ae-0001